Teaching
by Dragonhulk
Summary: A new magic school is being built where Sunnydale use to be and they want Xander to teach. They even offered to let him meet a long lost cousin to sweeten the deal. Crosses with Harry Potter.
1. Chapter 1

Teaching

Disclaimer: If I owned anything as popular as Buffy or Harry Potter I wouldn't be on such a limited budget during Christmas.

Ratting: Teen

Summery: A new magic school is being built where Sunnydale use to be and they want Xander to teach. They even offered to let him meet a long lost cousin to sweeten the deal. Crosses with Harry Potter.

Authors Notes: This was supposed to be an answer to a challenge made by DhampyrX2, but I didn't stick too close to it so I don't think it counts.

* * *

Xander closed his eye, enjoying the relatively cool African day. It wasn't often that he was able to relax between demons and warlords trying to kill him, so he had quickly learned to enjoy these moments when he found them. Unfortunately they never did last more than a moment.

"Mr. Harris," asked a man with an American accent.

"Yes," said Xander as he reached for the gun he tucked under his back. Most Americans that had approached him since coming to Africa were drug smugglers or worse so it was always best to be on guard.

"I am Mr. Pseudonym, and I'm here to offer you a job."

"I already have a job," said Xander as he got ready to shoot the man as soon as he drew his gun.

"Working for the new Watchers Council finding Slayers, I know," said Pseudonym.

The gun was out and pointed at the mans head as soon as he finished the sentence. "Just how do you know that," snarled Xander as he kept the gun pointed directly between the mans eyes.

"Please let me explain before you do anything rash," said Pseudonym in a worried voice. "I'm part of a community of wizards, and as you can imagine the exploits of you and your friends are quite well known."

"I've met a few wizards here, and they tried to sacrifice some of my slayers. If that's the only reason for me not to kill you this is going to be a very short conversation," said Xander in a dead tone.

"Call Mr. Giles, he's the one that recommended I approach you," stammered Pseudonym.

"Okay I will, but you stay right here. By now you are surrounded by slayers who will be happy to kill you if you start sweating too hard. If you hurt one of them we will be having this conversation while I practice some information gathering techniques I learned from a tribe of Grath demons," said Xander as he finally lowered his gun from the face of the very pale man.

Walking back into the building Xander picked up the phone and hit number one on his speed dial. The conversation shouldn't take to long, and then he would either talk to the man outside, or he would find a way to really hurt him.

"Hello?" asked Giles as he picked up on the third ring.

"Hey Giles I have a Mr. Pseudonym at my door that says you recommended me for something. Do I need to kill him for lying or what?" asked Xander.

"No I don't think you'll need to kill this one Xander, the Coven vouched for him when he visited with me," said Giles. "Honestly I was expecting this conversation a month ago; he has certainly taken his time getting to you."

"Okay so he isn't evil, that's a relief considering the last two people you sent my way. Got to ask though why he's asking me about a job, are you trying to get rid of me G-man?" asked Xander.

"Not forever, but I think it would be wise for you to get away form your current work for a year or two. Out of all of us who escaped Sunnydale you have had the most thrust upon you these last three years. Not even Robin has had to deal with as much demonic activity and he is stationed on a Hellmouth," said Giles.

"I never asked to take it easy," said Xander.

"I know, and I appreciated it during these years where we have had to build everything back up. The truth is Xander, you have made more lasting contacts in changing governments and friendly demonic tribes than the Council had before the First destroyed everything."

"Exactly why I need to stay Giles. Those new contacts know and trust me, and if you send someone to replace me things will be rocky at best," said Xander with a sigh.

"I know that, and I'm willing to risk it. Listen Xander I won't force you to leave, I just ask that you hear Pseudonym out and make you own decision. What ever you decide I will support you, but I do wish you to seriously consider the strain you have been under since arriving in Africa," said Giles with a sigh.

"Okay Giles, I'll hear the guy out, but I make no promises," said Xander.

"That is all that I ask Xander," said Giles in a warm voice before they both hung up the phone.

Walking back out side, Xander was pleased to see that Mr. Pseudonym hadn't moved an inch, and was looking very uncomfortable. Good, it served the jerk right for interrupting quiet time.

"Good news, wizard; Giles vouches for you so I won't have you killed. You can stand down now girls," said Xander right before twenty three heavily armed girls emerged from their hiding places.

"You sure you want to be left alone with him boss?" asked one ebony skinned beauty.

"Giles vouched for him so I'm giving him some leeway. You girls can go inside and raid the ice cream if you want, I didn't hear any of you getting into position so you deserve a treat. Just let Ashana know that I heard her playing with her spare ammo when I was coming back out," said Xander with a wide grin.

"Thanks boss," said the young woman just before she and the other girls began a mad rush into the house to enjoy their favorite treat.

"Okay Mr. Wizard, I'm listening so you better make it good," said Xander right before he sat back down in his chair.

"As I said my name is Mr. Pseudonym, and I'm here to offer you a job."

"What job?" asked Xander.

"A teaching job," said Pseudonym. "You see these last seven years the wizarding world has been at war, and a school was destroyed."

"Don't see why you came to me, I destroyed the last two schools I set foot in," said Xander with a shrug.

"Well you see the American Congress of Magic thought it would be a good idea to build the new school over the ruins of Sunnydale California."

"Are they insane!" roared Xander. "That sink hole is the last place children should be sent even if the Hellmouth was destroyed!"

"The American Committee for Enchantment Education disagreed," said Pseudonym. "The natural aversion field that was put off by the Hellmouth and the First Evil was still lingering, and was easily enough to alter so that all muggles and demons will avoid the area at all costs."

"Its still a stupid idea," said Xander. "If demons get a whiff that Sunnydale is back in business they're going to flock there inversion files or not."

"That brings me to the point of your job. As unfounded as such concerns are, many parents have voiced similar opinions. It is the belief of the ACEE that having someone who survived the last battle of Sunnydale would ease most of those worries."

"Still doesn't explain why you came directly to me," said Xander right before he caught something in Pseudonym's face. "You didn't consider me first did you. You contacted everyone else first and they all turned you down, so now you're asking me."

"That isn't entirely true," said Pseudonym with a wince. "We still haven't contacted the vampire Spike."

"Nice to know, but as flattering as that is I'm still going to have to turn you down. Even if I knew magic, I still have too many responsibilities here," said Xander as he got up from his chair.

"Wait you wouldn't have to do any magic! You would be teaching Muggle Studies. We would be paying you, quite handsomely I might add, to simply talk about the lives of non magical people, something you know quite a lot about already," said Pseudonym in a desperate attempt to regain Xanders interest.

"Still not interested," said Xander as he began walking towards the house.

"If you sign on we can arrange for the release of you cousin from prison!" yelled Pseudonym.

Xander paused and turned back around and said, "My parents were single children, I don't have any cousins."

"The people who raised you weren't your parents. After the war the English Ministry of Magic found out that two of their new prisoners had a together when they were young, and bespelled a couple of muggles into thinking that it was theirs."

"So my real mom and dad put the whammy on Tony and Jessica rather than raise me themselves? Yeah, like I really want to get to know them now," said Xander.

"From what I have been told it was a teenaged pregnancy while both were still in school, so they may have had your best intentions at heart when they gave you up," said Pseudonym.

"Yeah, because good people are always taken as prisoners of war and drop their new born children off at the mouth of hell," said Xander. "Let's just say I can get past dear old mom and dad for a few moments here though, what is my cousin in for."

"Attempted murder," said Pseudonym. "Your other cousin is attempting to set him free, but has run into some obstacles. The assurance of the American government, and you vouching for him could very well turn the tide."

"You're sure that he should be set free?" asked Xander.

"I have spoken to both your cousins, and reviewed the case myself. While your cousin wasn't a saint, I don't think he is as bad as the current administration has made him appear."

"What are their names?" asked Xander.

"Excuse me?" asked Pseudonym.

"The names of my parents, and my cousins. If I'm going to leave to see if they are worth knowing I need to know their names," said Xander.

"Your parents are Bellatrix Lestrange and Severus Snape; both of whom are imprisoned with your cousin Draco Malfoy. Your other cousin is Nymphadora Tonks, an Auror working for the English Ministry of Magic," said Pseudonym.


	2. Meeting a Cousin

"What was that?" asked Xander as he struggled to keep his lunch down.

"Standard portkey," said Pseudonym. "It's much safer, and quicker than that metal muggle transport you had intended to use."

"You guys always travel this way?" asked Xander as he tried to hide his distaste at the idea of transporting everywhere. Okay so it was cool in Star Trek, but this was magic, not science.

"No we have other means of transport that you can use. Portkeys are simply useful in traveling long distances quickly," said Pseudonym.

"Good to know," said Xander. "At the moment though I'm wondering exactly where we are."

"Just a few miles from London," said Pseudonym. "If everything was worked out the way it should be, our transportation should be laying around here somewhere."

"I don't see anything," said Xander as he looked around the empty field.

"Ah here it is," said Pseudonym as he picked up what looked like a small toy car.

Xander was about to make a joke about how not even a clown yoga master could fit in that when Pseudonym tapped it with what looked like a wand, and the car began to grow. As it grew Xander noticed that there was no way this could be mistaken for anything other than a magical car despite its attempt at a humble appearance. The wheals didn't touch the ground, and its paint job was a step below what a blind hippy would do while on the biggest high of his life. If this thing moved so much as in inch it would only be because about fifteen physical laws were broken by magic.

"Sorry it's an older model, but that's the government for you," said Pseudonym as he opened the driver side door.

"People use these?" asked Xander as he entered the car.

"Not very often, but we didn't think you would know how to fly a broom," said Pseudonym just before the car lurched forward, without the wizard touching any of the controls.

"That makes sense; too many wizards would be exposed after they were arrested for driving one of these things."

"Arrested?" asked Pseudonym. "Is there some muggle law that prohibits people from driving old cars that I wasn't informed about?"

"No, it's just that most cars touch the ground instead of hover, and have very different paint jobs," said Xander with a smile.

"Huh," said Pseudonym. "Well I guess little things like that can be missed when the car passed inspection. That might make a good lesson for your class though."

"Whoa there, I haven't agreed to anything yet," said Xander in a firm voice. "It's like I told you before we came here, I want to see if these people are worth knowing before I come teach."

"Of course," said Pseudonym. "Your cousin Nymphadora should be meeting us at The Leaky Cauldron, but we won't be able to see the rest of your family until tomorrow."

"Sounds good to me," said Xander. "In the meantime you can tell me what you used to make the car people sized."

"What do you mean?" asked Pseudonym.

"You know, that wand like thing," said Xander.

"That would be my wand," said Pseudonym in a confused tone. "It's fairly standard for a witch or wizard."

"My best friend is a witch, and I've never seen her use a wand before," said Xander.

"You're talking about Willow, correct?" asked Pseudonym. When Xander nodded he continued, "Willow is a Hellmouth conceived witch. They are extremely powerful and don't require a wand to focus their energies through. Of course this excess power tends to make them self destructive after a few years."

"Maybe, but she's over that now," said Xander in a tone that said this was a fact of life and no one should dare question him about it.

"Her records indicate that she is coming along rather nicely now that she is no longer practicing over an active Hellmouth."

"What records," said Xander as his eyes narrowed.

"Oh look, we're here," said a nervous Pseudonym as the car quickly stopped.

"What records," said Xander in a dangerous tone while making no attempt to leave the car.

"Listen you and your friends fight demons and other dangerous magical creatures. Is it that much of a surprise that people from my world would keep an eye on you to make sure you didn't kill anyone or anything magical that would start a war that we would have to fight?"

"I think I'll want to see those records before I make my decision," said Xander in a firm voice.

"Understandable," said Pseudonym with a sigh as he opened his door.

Deciding that was as good as he was going to get for the moment Xander got out of the car and looked around. The street didn't scream magic to him, but that was probably the point. In fact the only place that he would even conceder to have anything to do with magic would be the old bar called the Leaky Cauldron. Of course his keen deductive skills weren't influenced at all by the fact that he saw Pseudonym walk into said bar, nope not influence what so ever.

"So where to next?" asked Xander.

"Diagon Alley," said Pseudonym as he walked out the back door of the bar.

Quickly following him Xander found Pseudonym taping the bricks on a wall behind the bar. Xander wasn't too surprised when after a while the bricks began to move to make a passage way into a busy street to some kind. After all after you've see a portal to hell open up moving bricks just didn't register.

Staying close to Pseudonym as they navigated the busy streets Xander tried to mark any interesting places, and memorize the way back incase he had to make a break for it without Pseudonym. The thought may have sounded harsh but living on a Hellmouth and then in Africa had taught Xander that paranoia was a necessary survival trait.

"Here we are," said Pseudonym as they reached what looked like a cross between a medieval inn and a modern hotel.

"I'm guessing that this place doesn't even have basic cable," joked Xander as he walked into the lobby.

"Cable?" asked Pseudonym. "As far as I know there aren't any cables here, this building was small enough that they just used wood and stone."

"Never mind," said Xander with a sigh. "I'm just going to have to stop using culture references around people that have no idea what I'm talking about."

"Ah, a muggle thing then," said Pseudonym as if that explained everything. "Our rooms are upstairs if you would care to follow me."

"So when is my cousin going to show up?" asked Xander as he followed Pseudonym up the stairs.

"She's already here," said Pseudonym as he opened up the door to reveal a nicely decorated room that contained a plain looking woman about his age with a streak of cobalt blue running through her mousy brown hair.

"Wotcher, Alexander," said the woman causing Xander to wince.

"Please call me Xander, and I'm guessing that you're Nymphadora," said Xander causing a similar wince in the woman.

"Just Tonks if you please," said Tonks as she sat down on the bed.

"Tell you what, you don't use my real first name, and I won't use yours," said Xander with a smile.

"Sounds good to me," said Tonks.

"Okay first order of business, tell me about our cousin Draco," said Xander.

"He's rude, conceited, and a bit of a bigot," said Tonks. "That being said he isn't truly evil, and was forced by the darkest wizard in the last two hundred years, along with his fool parents into a situation he couldn't win."

"What situation was that?" asked Xander.

"He was ordered to kill the head of his school or be killed," said Tonks.

"Sounds like every kids dream," said Xander with a shrug.

"Not all of us had tyrannical, power hungry squibs leading our school," said Tonks with a flash of fire in her eyes.

"Okay so Draco was put in the bad position of having to kill a good man or die. Because he isn't dead or in for murder instead of attempted murder I'm assuming things didn't go as planed."

"Like I said, he isn't truly evil, just what you Americans would call a major jerk," said Tonks. "When it finally came down to it, he simply couldn't take the life of what he knew to be a good man."

"So even though he didn't go through with it the guy Draco was supposed to kill still pressed charges?" asked Xander as he tried to get a handle on the situation.

"No, Albus Dumbledore was still killed," said Tonks in a sad tone. "He was killed by Draco's godfather."

"So the godfather got away and the cops just needed someone in jail to save face?" asked Xander in confusion.

"Perhaps," said Tonks in a bitter tone. "At the time the Ministry was desperate to arrest any one even suspected of being connected to the dark arts. Being able to finally arrest someone that was connected to the death of such a well known and admired person was just too good of a chance to pass up. I'm hoping that now that things have died down a little the Ministry can be made to see reason."

"Still don't know how I can help," said Xander with a shrug. "Mr. Mysterious over in the next room mentioned that my support may help things along, but I don't see how. Buffy and Willow were the big hitters, I was just the guy the demons used as a punching bag."

"You were also used as a bit of wartime propaganda," said Tonks. "The image of a muggle that fought dark forces that frightened most sane witches and wizards was supposed to make standing up to dark wizards a bit easer."

"Did it work?" asked Xander.

"Not really," said Tonks. "Not many people found the idea believable and figured the Ministry had just made you up because Harry Potter wasn't supporting them."

"Okay one last question before we stop talking about evil witches and wizards, and I start to get to know what appears to be the only white sheep in my family. What are my parents in for?" asked Xander.

"Your mother has a rather long list of crimes attached to her name, but the most notable one was the torture of Alice and Frank Longbottom," said Tonks as she bit her bottom lip. "Your father is in for the murder of Albus Dumbledore."

"The school guy that Draco was supposed to kill," said Xander in a dead tone.

"Yes," said Tonks.

"Figures," muttered Xander. "Now I have to worry about becoming a psychotic killer instead of just an abusive drunk."


	3. Meeting the Others

Xander had to give one thing to these English wizards; they really knew how to pick a place for a prison. The island they were approaching was surrounded by jagged rocks; not even an Olympic swimmer would attempt the journey. Of course, it didn't mean much if you had magic though, so he didn't know how they were keeping the magic folk from leaving.

"We took their wands and placed special stones around the island that absorb wild magic so no one on the island can use magic," said Tonks, apparently reading his mind.

"No magic on the island?" asked Xander as he looked at the magically powered boat.

"Wild magic," said Tonks, as she pushed her jet black hair out of her eyes. "Spells crafted off the island last long enough to be of use, but the stones indicate when one is in use so no enchanted artifacts can be smuggled to the prisoners."

"Sounds reasonable," said Xander, as he stared at the fast approaching island. "What do you call this place anyway?"

"Azkaban," said Tonks, just as the boat lined itself up with the docks.

"Great, another name with no meaning," said Xander with a roll of his eye. "I guess it could be worse though, you people could name things like the people who wrote the magic book I read in high school. Azkaban is way better than The Isle of Imprisoned Souls."

"I think that was their second choice if people didn't like the name Azkaban," said Tonks with slight smile on her face.

"Cousin Tonks making with the funny!" crowed Xander. "I'm an even worse influence than I thought. If you keep this up, I may even go easy on your boyfriend once I meet him."

"You weren't serious were you?" asked Tonks with eyes wide.

"Tonks, you are the first decent relative I've had, and he made you cry," said Xander in a flat tone. "An offence that big requires a severe punishment."

"But hitting his nose with a rolled up newspaper is just cruel," said Tonks, as she put her hands over her mouth to hold in her laughter.

"Bah, he deserves it," said Xander with a wave of his hand. "He may have learned enough to start dating you, but he took so long that he needs a good newspaper to activate a few more brain cells."

"Are you Alexander Harris?" asked a strong voice from behind the two family members before Tonks had a chance to reply.

Turning around Xander saw something that he immediately recognized, but had never seen before. It was large, male, with the lower body of a horse, but unlike the pictures he had seen in books as a child the human half didn't look entirely human. The nose was flat, reminding Xander of a horse with its head down, and there was a lot more hair then on an average human male.

"Yes, he is," said Tonks, apparently unfazed by meeting a creature of myth, and not have it try to kill her.

"So you have centaurs guarding the worst wizards in Europe," said Xander, as he looked at the centaur.

"Do you have a problem with that?" asked the centaur, as he turned to glare at Xander.

"Should I?" asked Xander in a tone that he had made up in the past to make sure no insult was taken from it or his words. "Listen, I'm new to the whole good wizarding world, so I don't know what I should think of you other then the opinions I'm forming now talking to you."

"Is it true you kill nonhumans?" asked the centaur after a while.

"Yeah, but I've also killed humans as well. In my opinion, if someone is planning to destroy the world, or wipe out thousands of beings for fun, it doesn't matter if they are human or not, they deserve to die," said Xander.

"A wise outlook," said the centaur with grudging respect in his voice. "In answer to your question, centaurs such as myself only starting working as guards after the dementors proved themselves untrustworthy. We earn a wage that we will put fourth to purchase more land. The amount of land the Ministry gives us isn't enough if my people want to increase our numbers, it is hardly enough for the numbers we have."

"Sounds like a good plan," said Xander with a nod. "If you need any help with finding a place, contact the Watchers Council, and tell them that I sent you. They may not be able to do much more than tell you if your land is infested with demons or not, but its something."

"We don't need any help from humans," said the centaur with a snort.

"Yeah, that's a load of crap," said Xander with a similar snort. "I work with Slayers who could fold your horse half into any origami shape they felt like at the moment, and they need help on a constant basis. You want to be proud fine, just don't be stupid enough to flat out refuse help when it's offered to you."

The centaur leveled a glare at Xander that would melt most metals, but Xander didn't even flinch. Finally after a while the centaur turned away and said, "We do not want or need help, but you may have a point. I will bring it up with the rest of my herd when I return to them."

"Sounds good to me," said Xander, as he entered the building they had been walking towards. "Let them make the decision, I just wanted to put it on the table."

"Thank you," grumbled the centaur. "The first set of prisoners will be with you in a moment."

"That was interesting," commented Tonks as soon as the centaur left. "Not many wizards would offer to help nonhumans they don't even know."

"Then most wizards are jerks," said Xander. "I spent enough time fighting creatures that wanted to rip out my heart for a laugh that I can't stand by and watch a neutral, possibly good creature get turned into that because it thinks every human is out to get him."

Tonks didn't respond and the two simply waited in comfortable silence before another centaur ushered in a man and a woman. The woman had obviously been in prison for a while if her aged face were anything to go by, but the man looked like prison life was just beginning to catch up to him.

"Come to ask more questions Nymphadora, or is this just a social visit for your poor old aunt?" spat Bellatrix while Snape remained quiet, his eyes taking in every detail of the room.

"I'm the one that has the questions," said Xander as he drew Bellatrix's attention.

"Why would you have any question for us?" asked Snape in a cool even tone.

"You've received a bit of fame outside this island, and I intend to write a book about you so I can be famous as well," Xander easily lied.

"A book about us, not a book about the Dark Lord?" asked Bellatrix.

"Everyone is writing a book about him now that he's confirmed as dead. The only way I'll see a return on my book is if I give it a new twist and focus on you instead of him," said Xander with a shrug.

"Where are you from?" asked Snape out of the blue.

"Excuse me?" asked Xander.

"You have an interesting accent. Where are you from?" repeated Snape.

"California," said Xander.

"Where in California?" asked Snape, as he pierced Xander with his black eyes.

"Sunnydale," said Xander as he gave up all pretences. Apparently, he took after his mom in the smarts department because daddy had seen right through the lies the moment he started to talk.

"Sunnydale?" snapped Bellatrix, as her cruel dark brown eyes began to study his every feature.

"Surprise," said Xander, as he let it sink in.

"Have you come to free us, son?" asked Bellatrix in a sweet tone. If Xander hadn't seen the hate and evil in her eyes when she was brought in he would have been completely fooled.

"No," said Xander. "Like I said, I have some questions to ask you. The first one that comes to mind is why did you leave me off at a Hellmouth of all places?"

"To kill you of course," said Snape, before Bellatrix had a chance to say anything. "An infant alone on a Hellmouth with only a couple of muggles for protection; you should have been dead within a month."

"That brings up the question of why you wanted me dead in the first place," said Xander, in a tightly controlled voice.

"I didn't want you dead, he did!" shouted Bellatrix. "He took you from me once you were born, and never told me where you were!"

"I might believe that if you hadn't reacted the way you did when you learned where I'm from," said Xander.

"You were the result of two love potions," said Snape. "The first was accidentally given to me by a foolish little girl, and the second I made to make your mother feel for me what I thought I felt for her. Slughorn eventually figured out what had happened, but not before the damage was done."

"The damage being me," said Xander.

"Indeed," said Snape, as Bellatrix grew more and more angry. "To be fair, you were more damaging to Bell, than to me. If she had kept the child of a Half-Blood like myself, her family would have disowned her like they did her elder sister Andromeda."

"You never should have touched me!" shrieked Bellatrix. "If you had just delivered the drink instead of gulping it down yourself, I never would have had to carry your horrid little brat!"

"Gee, tell me what you really think of me," muttered Xander.

"Do you honestly think I care if I hurt your feelings you miserable, tainted, Mudblood! I should have cut your throat the second you were out of my womb instead of shaming my family by letting you live!" raged Bellatrix.

"Then why didn't you!" Xander yelled back.

"Because you were still her child," said Snape. "She wasn't quite the monster back then that she is now. She cared for you despite what she did to you."

"Then what about you? If you're supposed to be the good guy in all of this why didn't you raise me?" asked Xander as he struggled to get his temper back under control.

"Because she didn't tell me until three months after she had placed you upon the Hellmouth," said Snape. "As I said, you shouldn't have survived a third of that time."

"So you decided not to even look for me," said Xander, as he signaled the centaur guard to take them away. "You're a real piece of work, but at least you're honest about it."

"After all these years honesty is the least I owe you," said Snape in a dead tone as he and Bellatrix were escorted out the door.

"I'm sorry Xander," whispered Tonks as soon as the two dark wizards had left.

"Not your fault we have crappy relatives," said Xander with a fake grin. "Who knows, maybe lizard boy will even out the scales."

"Like I said, he isn't the best person, but he is far better than those two," said Tonks as Draco was brought in.

"Hey Tonks, who's this?" asked Draco.

"Someone who may help," said Xander, as he repeated to himself that Spike was dead. He was now dust in the wind dead, not the walking and talking dead he had been for over a hundred years.

"Not another one," sneered Draco. "Listen just go back to wherever my cousin pulled you from and forget about me okay?"

"Why should I do that?" asked Xander.

"Because I'm a lost cause, that's why," said Draco. "Even if the Dark Lord himself walked into the hearing and cursed me for going against him, Harry Potter would only have to say one word and I'd be right back in here."

"Let us worry about Potter," said Xander. "I just want to hear what you would do if you got out."

"I don't know," said Draco with a frustrated growl. "It isn't like I have much waiting for me outside. My dad is dead, and my mum is rotting in another prison, so the only family I have would be Tonks. Heck, even if I get out of here they'll never let me own a wand again, so I'll be almost as bad as a bloody squib."

Before Xander could ask Draco another question the centaur guard returned and said, "Visiting hours are over, you need to leave now."

"So what did you think?" asked Tonks as they walked back to the boat.

"He's a jerk, but you have a point about him not going through it at the end," said Xander. "I need to sleep on it, I'll tell you tomorrow."

"His review hearing is tomorrow," said Tonks.

"Then I guess I get to tell everyone at the same time," said Xander with a grin.


	4. For Family

"Tonks why are there so many people here?" asked Xander as he scanned the room and took in the number of people that were in attendance. "This is just a hearing to see if Dragon Breath should be let off for parole, and this place is packed."

"I have an idea about that," said Tonks as she looked at a young wizard with glasses and a scar that started on his forehead and ran down his face in a lightning like pattern.

"This idea have anything to do with lightning scar over there?" asked Xander as he followed his cousins gaze.

"That's Harry Potter, the wizard that killed He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," said Tonks with a look of pity in her eye. "He hasn't had the easiest life, and the last year before the final confrontation was absolutely horrid."

"So why is he here?" asked Xander.

"If I'm not mistaken he's here to testify against Draco," said Tonks as she bit her lower lip. "You see they never got along when they were in school together, and after what Draco's father did I wouldn't be surprised if Harry is looking to get some vengeance where he can."

"Another evil relative," muttered Xander. "What did this one do, torture kittens for fun?"

"Possibly," said Tonks in a serious tone. "He cursed Harrys girlfriend into a coma so it wouldn't surprise me. Poor girl's still at St Mungo's, not a spark of life in her."

"So now that daddy is dead Harry is here to take out his frustrations on the son," said Xander as he remembered the conversation he had with Draco yesterday.

"Think so," said Tonks just before the judge called the meeting to order.

"This hearing is to determine if Draco Malfoy, convicted Death Eater and accomplice to the murder of Albus Dumbledore, is eligible for parole. I have reviewed the evidence put fourth by the prosecution and defense during the trial, and will now hear from individuals why he should or should not be released from incarceration," said the judge.

The next hour was spent listening to various people talk about the Draco Malfoy they knew, it wasn't a pretty picture. Apparently he had been as big a bully as Percy, had a wit like Cordelia, and was so conceited he would have made Wesley the Weasel look humble. The only person that had some redeeming things to say was Tonks, and then it was Xanders turn.

"State your name for the record," said a very intimidating looking man.

"Alexander Harris, but most people call me Xander. Also judging by the way most of you are reacting, you already knew that," said Xander as he looked at the mumbling crowd.

"Please make your statement Mr. Harris," said the judge.

"Okay like I said, my name is Xander Harris, the same Xander Harris that the Ministry used as a poster boy," said Xander. "Now I don't know what they said about me, but it is true that I fight demons and the occasional black wizard. What they probably didn't tell you back then because no one, including myself, knew about it is that I'm also a cousin to Draco.

"Up until a few days ago I didn't even know I had a cousin, and that may have been a good thing. From what I heard today Draco is a bully and a Class A jerk, but he isn't a killer.

"He had to do everything he could to kill Dumbledore, or he would have been killed. It was an impossible situation that no one should be put in, but he was.

"I've been offered a job to teach at an American school, and the American government has offered to watch over Draco while I teach. I don't know what would violate his parole, but I've been around enough to know when most people are up to no good."

"Tell me Mr. Harris, just what would you do if Draco slipped and started to work dark arts once again?" asked the judge.

"Depends on how far he slipped," said Xander with a shrug. "If it's just a couple of dark spells that give people a stomach ache then I'd just yell at him for a while. If he's trying to end the world or become a new Dark Lord, then I'd kill him."

"A harsh way of thinking," said the judge.

"It's the world I live in. You don't keep a threat alive, you kill it. I'm all for second, even third chances, but you can only go so long before you have to admit that this person would be better off dead," said Xander in a haunted voice. "If I think for a second Draco has gone so far that he can't come back, he won't be breathing five minutes later."

"Understood, thanks you Mr. Harris, you may step down now," said the Judge. "Harry Potter, you may now take the stand."

As Xander studied the young man that took his place on the stand, he came to two conclusions. The first conclusion was that the scars on his face were new; he wouldn't wince slightly at his reflection if he wasn't still getting use to them.

The second conclusion that Xander came to was that this kid had seen too much too fast. His eyes were haunted with things that Xander could easily imagine. For a few moments Xander wondered if he looked as bad when he allowed himself to remember the worse parts of his life instead of working to make those around him feel better.

"I think Mr. Harris summed it up when he said that Draco was a Grade A prat," said Harry. "I could give you a hundred more examples of how Draco bullied people at Hogwarts but I think everyone here gets the point by now.

"I came here at first to make sure that Draco Malfoy wouldn't take one breath of fresh air, but I can't do that anymore. Albus Dumbledore always believed in second chances, and as much as I would like to say otherwise Draco deserves one. Any true Death Eater would have killed Dumbledore without a second though, but Draco was lowering his wand when Snape came out.

"I say let him live with his American cousin. This way he'll be out of the country, and he won't get a third chance if he decides to side with the next dark power that will try to take Voldemort's place."

"Thank you Mr. Potter," said the judge as Harry stepped down from the stands. "I will now retire to my chambers to weigh the testimonies. Court will resume in one hour."

As soon as the judge left the room Tonks got up and dragged Xander to the group of people that were already gathering around an unhappy looking Harry. Personally Xander would have enjoyed leaving the celebrity alone, but Tonks wasn't hearing it.

"Wotcher Harry," said Tonks with a smile as they finally broke through the crowd.

"Hello Tonks," said Harry with a weak smile.

"Just wanted to pop in and thank you for not blackballing Draco," said Tonks while Xander remained silent.

"Thank Hermione," said Harry with a shrug. "She sent me an owl last night telling me to put aside what Draco did in school and do the right thing. I was still going to do it until I heard your cousin's speech. I figured that living with a relative that would kill him the moment he touched a dark artifact was punishment enough."

"The fact that I don't have any magical powers will probably piss him off to," said Xander with a grin.

This actually caused Harry to break out laughing, something he probably hadn't done for too long a time. "I forgot the Ministry billed you as a muggle, that's going to torture Malfoy!"

"Don't sound too cheerful when you use the word torture Harry, it gives people the wrong idea," said Tonks with a smile of her own.

"Bah don't listen to her, if people think you're nuts they leave you alone with the voices in your head," said Xander as he once again got into his element.

"You're both bloody insane," chuckled Harry. "One thing I need to know though, just who are your parents?"

"Couple of Death Eaters that got pregnant while in school. Since they left me to die on a Hellmouth I'm not really in the mood to talk about them," said Xander with a shrug.

"What's a Hellmouth?" asked Harry.

"Just what it sounds like," said Tonks with a shudder. "They would have covered it in your seventh year but you decided to take it off to save the world."

The rest of the time was spent talking about the small things in life as each member of the group made an effort not to bring up war stories. Each member had seen quite enough death, and didn't need to hear about the burdens of the others as the moment.

Finally after the hour had passed the judge returned to offer the verdict. It didn't surprise one person in the courtroom that he set the prisoner free, after all Harry Potter himself had said it should be done.

"So I take it you'll be joining me in America shortly?" asked Pseudonym.

"Just as soon as I see those reports you people kept on our group," said Xander as Draco was brought out and unshackled.

"Very well," said Pseudonym with a sigh. "You'll have them before you leave this country on that muggle flying machine. Just don't let your friend Willow see them; we don't want a repeat of Kingman's Bluff."

"Don't worry I won't," said Xander with a grin while thinking of going on a killing spree of his own if there was anything in those reports that would want to make Willow end the world again.

"I'll leave you to get acquainted with your new roommate then," said Pseudonym as the nondescript man faded into the crowd.

"Living like a muggle with a squib, Potter should have left me to rot," muttered Draco as he came towards Tonks and Xander.

"You're welcome," said Tonks and Xander at the same time.

"Just get me out of here," said Draco.

* * *

The simmering anger Xander had been feeling turned into a boiling rage as he finished the page. If this was true then he had some serious work to do, and he knew just where to start.

Using the phone in the hotel room to call Giles, Xander fought to keep his temper under control. Maybe it wasn't as bad as he was imagining, and maybe the world wouldn't be destroyed by his best friend since Kindergarten.

"Hello?" asked Giles as he picked up the phone.

"Giles I'm reading some very disturbing reports right now that I think you should know about," said Xander.

"What reports?" asked Giles.

"Reports written by the government wizards that were spying on us while we were in Sunnydale," growled Xander. "They were there for everything after the Master Giles, including the day when Tara was shot. The wizard saw Warren coming at me and Buffy with a gun and didn't do a thing to stop him!"

"Xander calm down," said Giles. "Contrary to what many people think governments aren't completely stupid, they must have had a reason."

"The reason was that they considered Buffy and me expendable," said Xander. "They were hunting American Death Eaters and they thought that Willow would be a good lead. They were out capturing a cell of the Death Eaters when Willow had her incident so that explains why they didn't try to step in."

"Not the best of news, but I'm not sure what has gotten you so riled up," said Giles in a tired tone.

"I'm riled up because they blacked out the name of the agent that was watching us the day Tara died," growled Xander.

"It was probably for his or her own protection Xander," said Giles.

"I know the name was blacked out to protect the person, and believe it or not that's just what I'm trying to do. Willow is a good witch for now, but how long will that last if she finds out that there was someone there that day that could have prevented Tara's death but didn't do anything? What do you think she will do if she learns that said person was under orders to not interfere if she or Tara got into a live or death situation simply because they were both conceived on a Hellmouth?" ranted Xander.

"What do you want me to do?" asked a frightened Giles.

"Use whatever pull the Watchers Council still has with the American wizarding government to get them to destroy every record they ever had that indicates they had someone in Sunnydale. Then you need to make sure that where ever Willow is at the moment the agent that was assigned to watch us the day Tara died is on the other side of the planet. She can never know about this person, understand Giles?" said Xander.

"I understand Xander, and I'll make sure this happens without Willow knowing a thing about it," said Giles. "I must say though, you are taking this and the recent developments in your life much better than I expected."

"No, I'm not," said Xander. "As soon as I hang up I plan to completely trash my hotel room."

"Understood, I'll leave you to it then," said Giles right before he hung up.

True to his word as soon as Giles hung up Xander picked up the stand the phone had rested on and threw it at the wall, finally letting go of his anger. He had expected nightstand to shatter against the wall, not for the nightstand and wall to shatter as he felt some kind of energy leave his body when he threw the defenseless piece of furniture.

Of course this had to happen the same moment Draco entered from the other side of the room.

Rather than look frightened or astonished at the missing wall Draco simply gave Xander an arrogant half smirk and said, "Guess you aren't a squib after all."


	5. Family of Choice Meets Family of Blood

"Having fun, Dragon Breath?" asked Xander with a grin.

"Shut up," Draco hissed through clenched teeth.

Xander only chuckled as he sat back and completely ignored the turbulence the plane was experiencing. Once you fly a small biplane over an African war zone to rescue a Slayer the little bumps one of these big ocean hoppers experienced was nothing.

Of course, Draco had never even been in a plane before, and was taking to it about as well as Xander had taken to using a port key. His cousin, that could easily pass as a clone for Spike, had already filled up one airsickness bag, and was currently clutching his chair in absolute terror as the plane bumped against invisible forces.

"Come on Draco, this isn't that bad. Just think of this as a long broom ride," said Xander.

"No one rides a broom this high, it's too cold and there isn't enough air," snapped Draco. "Only muggles are stupid enough to get into a poorly made tin can that could fall apart at any moment!"

"This is made out of aluminum Draco," said Xander as he tapped the plane. "Tin is just way too sturdy for muggle death traps."

"Ha ha, very funny," said Draco in a tone that would make his old potions teacher proud.

"Now you're getting the idea Draco. Laugh in the face of danger, then run away when it's looking the other way," said Xander with a smirk.

"Do you think this is some kind of bloody joke?" hissed Draco.

"No, but I do think you've been so busy being angry at me you forgot to be scared," said Xander. "I bet you haven't even noticed that the turbulence is over, have you?"

"What?" asked Draco as he noticed that the plane was flying smoothly once more.

"Rule number three of demon fighting, when you're scared, find a distraction," said Xander. "You seem to lean towards anger, but I like jokes that either confuse or piss off what ever is scaring me."

"Are you telling me that you survived seven years on the Hellmouth by pissing off whatever was trying to kill you?" asked Draco.

"No, I survived seven years on the Hellmouth because I had a powerful witch and the best Slayer in history as best friends," said Xander. "That's rule number two by the way, keep your friends close, and shoot your enemies in the head when their back is turned."

"I already knew that one," said Draco with a snort.

"Do you?" asked Xander with a raised eyebrow. "From what Tonks told me, you didn't have any friends in school, just a couple of enforcers. You see, when I said that you should keep your friends close, I meant people who would do anything for you because they know you would do anything for them."

"You mean like Potter's little group," said Draco with a sneer.

"You'd know better than I would how close they were, but yeah, that's probably a good example of what I mean," said Xander. "According to the reports I read, all three of them had a hand taking down the bad guy, even though it was Potter that had the destiny and took most of the crap that was thrown their way. In fact they don't sound too different from how me and my friends were when we were first starting out."

"So what's rule number one?" asked Draco, after a stretch of uncomfortable silence.

"Don't die," said Xander. "Its one of those all encompassing rules that leaves a lot of room for interoperation on how a person obeys said rule."

"Should have figured it was something simple minded like that with an American making it up," said Draco. "Your country hasn't even put together a decent Quidditch team in twenty years."

"What's Quidditch?" asked Xander.

"You mean to tell me that Tonks told you about my friends, but didn't mention a thing about Quidditch?" asked Draco with narrowed eyes.

"I am saying that there has been no mention Quidditch whatsoever," said Xander.

"And you call yourself a teacher," snorted Draco. "I suppose that I will have to educate you in this matter."

The following conversation lasted six hours. By the time the plane landed Xander not only knew how to follow the sport, he also knew each and every underhanded trick in the book.

* * *

"Hey X!" said an attractive raven haired woman as Xander and Draco exited the Cleveland airport.

"Hey Faith, I want you to meet my cousin Draco," said Xander, as he waved his hand towards his newfound cousin.

"Not bad," said Faith as she gave Draco the once over. "Bit young for my tastes, but you better keep him away from Little D, girl's turning into a real heartbreaker."

"And you couldn't be more proud, could you?" said Xander.

"As sickening as this is to watch, it's also boring, so when are we going to leave this bloody building of torture?" said Draco.

"Don't you just love how every other word out of his mouth is an insult?" said Xander.

"Love isn't exactly the word I was going to use," said Faith.

"Oh look, I've hurt the muggle's feelings, however will I deal with this overwhelming sense of guilt?" said Draco in a sarcastic tone.

Before Faith could flatten Draco into a smear on the ground, Xander put an arm on her soldered and asked her if she brought Robin's Christmas gift with her.

"Of course X, you know me and my baby are inseparable. It meant that Robin had to drive here alone, but he didn't mind," said Faith in a confused voice.

"Tell you what, why don't you give Draco a ride to show him exactly what it can do, while I ride with Robin," said Xander with a grin.

"You sure about that X?" asked Faith with a gleam in her eye.

"It only seems fair," said Xander in a casual voice.

"What are you two going one about?" asked Draco.

"Nothing much, Faith here has just agreed to give you a ride so I can talk to an old friend," said Xander.

"Are you sure it's safe?" asked Draco as he eyed Faith suspiciously.

"Don't tell me you're afraid of a little muggle woman just because you lost your wand," said Xander.

"Your right, what could she do to me?" said Draco with a confidant smirk.

"That's the spirit," said Xander. "Why don't the two of you get a head start, and I'll take the luggage to Robin, we have a lot to catch up on."

"Robin's right outside waiting for you X, now let's go for a ride Blondie," said Faith.

When he finally retrieved the two duffle bags that consisted of everything he and Draco had packed, Xander was still laughing. In fact he was still chuckling when he approached Robin outside the building.

"Weren't there supposed to be two of you?" asked Robin as he helped Xander toss the duffle bags into the back seat of the car.

"Faith decided to take him home," said Xander with a grin on his face.

"Just what did your cousin do to deserve that?" asked Robin.

"He insulted Faith, so it was this or let her punch him," said Xander.

"You should have just let Faith punch him," said Robin, now sporting a grin of his own. "If Faith had punched him, the injury would have healed in a month, but this way your cousin will be traumatized for life."

"I know, but he had it coming," said Xander with an insane grin.

* * *

When Xander and Robin arrived at the Cleveland base of operations neither was too surprised to see that Faith had already gotten there, and her souped up Harley was still cooling down. Of course, neither of them was surprised to see Draco sprawled out on the lawn, gripping the grass for dear life.

"Have a good time Draco?" asked Xander as he got out of the car.

The figure on the ground only moaned, and surprisingly, it was Faith who came to his defense by saying, "Don't bust the kid's chops too much, I had to pull out every trick I had before he finally cracked. I figure that anyone that can stay with me that long deserves a little slack."

"Well according to him he was the best Seeker Slytherin ever had; so he's probably used to moving fast," said Xander.

"Quidditch, right?" asked Robin.

"Yeah, how did you know?" asked Xander.

"We have a Slayer that comes from a magical family who's told everyone about her favorite game. According to her she's a pretty good Keeper," said Faith.

"A Slayer!" asked a suddenly very alert Draco.

"Yep, welcome to Slayer Central for the Cleveland Hellmouth," said Xander with a grand wave of his hand. "Each girl here could probably take you on even if you still had a wand, so play nice."

"How long are we staying here again?" asked Draco nervously.

"Two days while Pseudonym arranges to make sure we have a place to stay. Then we're off to the newly rebuilt Sunnydale, or whatever they're calling it now," said Xander. "Don't worry too much though; there is a up-side to being in a house full of women that can kill you with a look."

"Like what?" asked Draco as they all entered the building to see twenty seven beautiful girls crowded under a homemade banner that said WELCOME BACK TO THE HELLMOUTH XANDER.

"Like the fact that they're all drop dead gorgeous," said Xander as he watched Draco's mouth hit the floor. "Just remember, you can look, but only as much as they let you. Don't even think about touching."

"Unless they ask you to," said Faith. "They all get the itch after getting some action on patrol, and some of them might like having a boy-toy in training around the house for a couple of days."

"I thought you said not to tease him Faith," said Xander as he watched his cousin suffer a hormonal meltdown.

"It's only teasing if it isn't true," said Faith with a wink. "So what do you think of us muggles now?"

"I believe that I have been grossly misinformed on the subject," Draco said in a suave voice that sounded completely fake.

"Wait until you see them by the pool," said Faith, and then laughed when Draco's eyes started to glaze over.

"Okay enough teasing, I smell cake," said Xander as the party started.


	6. Knew This Was Coming

"Did we really have to leave?" asked Draco.

"It was for your own safety," said Xander as he drove down familiar roads.

"Oh come now, the situation wasn't that bad," said Draco.

"I caught five Slayers plotting a fate worse than death for you and Sarah was two words away from zapping you with a curse because of your rant about Mudbloods," said Xander.

"How was I supposed to know that her mum was a muggle?" asked Draco.

"Face it Draco, you broke rule number one when dealing with women," said Xander.

"Another rule," sneered Draco. "Alright lets have it, what pearl of wisdom is my illegitimate cousin going to impart this time?"

"Never let your hormones override your survival instincts. You just wanted to stay so you could see the girls in bikinis again. You may have died with a smile on your face, but you would still be dead," said Xander.

"Like you're one to talk," said Draco with a snort. "If half of what the Daily Prophet reported on your past love life is true you have no place to talk."

"Correction, it gives me the perfect place to talk, from experience," said Xander. "Just out of curiosity, what did the London paper say about me?"

"That you created a soul sucking mummy just to get a date, you attempted to carry the eggs of an insect demon, and you left a vengeance demon at the Altar," said Draco. "The last one goes so far beyond simply ignoring your survival instincts that the act should be classified as a death wish."

As soon as Draco stopped talking Xander slammed both feet on the brakes, causing the car to come to a jarring stop. Slowly turning his head Xander gave Draco his most intense glare and said, "You don't get to talk about that, ever. You weren't there, you didn't know her, and you haven't had anything like that happen to you. If I hear you even mention that event in the tone you just used I will personally remove your second wand."

"What second wand?" asked Draco right before his eyes bugged out as the meaning hit him. "You wouldn't."

Xander simply gave Draco a smile that any demon would envy and turned back to the road.

"Right, shutting up now," said Draco as he moved as far away from Xander as he could get.

The rest of the drive was spent in complete silence.

* * *

"Ley Crossing, New Lagoon what kind of names are those?" asked Draco as they passed through the illusion that obscured the road into town.

"When Sunnydale collapsed the only thing holding back the ocean was the sand on the beach. By the time people decided to build a school here all the ruins were probably under water, chances are they kept a lagoon after they finished draining everything," said Xander. "As for Ley Crossing Hellmouths are nothing but a tangled bunch of Ley Lines that weaken the barrier between this dimension and some really sucky ones."

"Still sounds like a couple of stupid names to me," said Draco.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't your school and the town it was located in named after pork?" asked Xander.

"At least Hogwarts has a history behind it," said Draco with a condescending sniff. "What kind of history does this place have?"

"You know the usual Hellmouth history full of pain, violence, and human sacrifice. Doesn't it just giver you a nice warm feeling to know that it's going to be passed down to another generation of impressionable High School students?" said Xander in his best imitation of the Mayor.

"You're bleeding insane, you know that right?" said Draco as he gave Xander a look usually reserved for people at an insane asylum.

"I subscribe to the Hawkeye Pierce philosophy of life and happiness. A little insanity here and there keeps me from going crazy," said Xander. "Of course Hawkeye also drank just as much as he talked, and chased anything that had breasts and a good pair of legs. Maybe that's where I went wrong, not enough booze and lady chasing."

"I truly fear the workings of your mind," said Draco. "The only reason that I'm not going to warn the parents about you is because you are teaching at an American school. From what I've heard there isn't anything you can do that could possibly lower the educational standards they have."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," said Xander. "I helped get you out of prison and I'm about to be a teacher, would it kill you to give me a little respect?"

"I'll give you respect when you get a wand. Until then you might as well just be a muggle or squib," said Draco.

"I told you before, me and magic don't mix. Besides if it got back to Willow that I was using a wand like a stereotypical wizard she'd turn me into a rat for a year," said Xander with a shudder.

"Why would she have trouble with you using a wand? Next thing you'll tell me is that she'd skin you alive if you used a broom," said Draco.

"She'd be okay with a broom so long as I was using it to sweep stuff up, however flying them is a big no-no," said Xander. "Willow's a Hellmouth conceived witch so she doesn't need a wand to cast her spells, or a broom to fly. In fact she considers those things outdated stereotypes, and gets really upset when people bring them up."

"Not getting a wand is still a stupid idea," grumbled Draco.

"Its not like I'm going to be able to stick out any more if I don't have a wand," said Xander as he waved to all the witches and wizards that were pointing at the car.

"People may still notice you, but at least they won't think you're a muggle," muttered Draco as he tried to hind himself from the gaze of the magical community.

Xander didn't respond, he simply pulled into the house that matched the address Pseudonym gave him, and was almost surprised to see the familiar non-descript wizard waiting for them.

"I still don't see why you don't stay at the school like the rest of the teachers," said Pseudonym.

"It's something left over from my days as a high school slacker, I just don't want to spend any more time in school than I have to," said Xander. "Of course that should also be a good thing from your point of view."

"Why is that?" asked Pseudonym.

"Because I personally had a hand in destroying the last four schools that I set foot in," said Xander. "Okay so I only destroyed them to stop evil, but still keeping me away from the school as much as possible is probably a good thing."

"Not destroying the newly built school is good, and on a personal note using your room for scroll storage is always a plus," said Pseudonym.

"Wait, are you saying that you're a teacher?" asked Xander.

"Yes, I teach magical writing and history. What did you think I did?"

"Honestly I figured you were some kind of magical government spook. How come a teacher had enough authority to negotiate the terms to bring me here?" asked Xander.

"It's easy to negotiate when the government writes you a blank cheque. As for why they picked me, I simply had the right personality according to the reports the government had on you and your friends," said Pseudonym.

"So you aren't a government plant placed here just to keep an eye on me and Draco?" asked Xander.

"If I was, do you think I'd tell you?" asked Pseudonym.

"You would if you didn't want a horde of Slayers after your blood once the truth comes out," said Xander as his smile took on a bit of an edge.

"Well I'm not. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to start preparing for the start of the year. I expect to see you in a week for the opening feast," said Pseudonym before leaving.

"You may want to consider getting ready too," said Draco.

"Whatever happened to you not worrying about me messing up the kids because the whole American Education system is screwed up?" asked Xander as he started to unpack the boxes that were sitting around the house.

"That was before I knew that your hobbies included destroying schools, though I can't say I'm too surprised," sniped Draco.

"I think I'm going to go for a walk," said Xander as he walked out the door.

It wasn't that he was mad at Draco, far from it he was glad to have a relative that could keep up with him, he just needed to really look at the place. Even with the name New Lagoon, this was still Sunnydale, and that meant this place could still be dangerous.

One thing this place had going for it was the well lit streets. There wasn't one dark alley as far as he could see, even when there weren't any street lamps.

The down side was while the streets were well lit, there wasn't one that he was familiar with. All the buildings and landmarks from his childhood had been destroyed and forgotten. This place wasn't a rebuilt Sunnydale it was a completely new town that was simply located where Sunnydale once was, and Xander couldn't decide if that revelation made him happy or sad.

Eventually he made his way to the beach, and the new lagoon. He was pleasantly surprised to see a family playing in the lagoon, something no one would have done back in Sunnydale.

"Hey," said Xander.

"Hey," said the blond woman who never even took her eyes off of here two year old boy as he splashed around in the shallow side of the lagoon.

"Let me guess, you just got into town," said the brown haired husband.

"I guess you could say that. What gave me away?" asked Xander.

"You look like you're just waiting for some demon to jump out of the shadows and attack you," said the man with a grin.

"Well yeah, this place used to be a Hellmouth," said Xander. The guy seemed talkative so he could probably answer a few questions that had been bugging Xander if he played along.

"That's what everyone says, but trust me this place is as safe as you can get," said the man.

"How would you know?" asked Xander.

"Because I was the one that put up the security wards around town," said the man with obvious pride, even as the wife rolled her eyes. Obviously the husband was either exaggerating his role or he bragged about it to every one he met, but that wasn't Xanders problem. "If something as blood thirsty as a mosquito tries to get in here it'll be instantly vaporized."

"I'd say that's overkill if I didn't know of five different demonic insect species. What happens if the wards are somehow deactivated though?" asked Xander.

"That's why the government got three of the biggest guns you can imagine to teach at the school. They should be able to handle anything up to You-Know-Who coming back to life," said the man with a grin.

"Sounds like all the bases are covered," said Xander as he let out a silent sigh of relief. At least the government hadn't been stupid enough to place all their hopes with Xander; they were smart enough to con two other people to watching over the town.

"Yep, and as soon as more people realize it this place is all ready to become the third largest wizarding community in the United States," said the man, completely oblivious to Xanders reaction.

"Well thanks for talking with me," said Xander as he left the family to spend some quality time by themselves.

The talk really had put him at ease, and for the first time he had a good feeling about coming back. Of course that was when the higher powers decided to punish their favorite butt-monkey for having optimistic thoughts.

"Imperio!" boomed a hate filled voice, right before Xander felt someone try to enter his mind. Unfortunately for the intruder, the other residents of Xanders mind also noticed, and they weren't happy about the intrusion.

Xander smiled as the wizard that had attacked him crumple to the ground, clutching at his head and said, "Sorry, no vacancies."

The wizard simply snarled at Xander before disappearing. Xander took some time to enjoy his victory before he came to a very disturbing realization.

"Crap, I'm going to have to get a wand and learn magic. Willow is so going to kill me," muttered Xander as he continued to walk home.


	7. Run, the English are invading!

The next morning was harsh for Xander to say the least. Whatever that stupid wizard had tried to do last night had really woken up some sleeping dogs, soldiers, and some other things that couldn't be described in any human language, thank you Africa.

Grabbing a small sack of gold coins after getting dressed, Xander left the house to go and buy a wand; only stopping to look in on his sleeping cousin. Poor kid was completely exhausted from a day of moving boxes without magic.

Walking down the streets, Xander tried to remember where he had seen the wand shop. Everything looked so different in the light that he had to backtrack several times before he finally reached his destination.

"Weasley's Wands," muttered Xander as he read the sign hanging from the nice looking three story building. "Catchy, if a bit simplistic."

Shrugging Xander stepped inside; he needed a wand, who cared what the place called itself.

"Hello, anyone in here?" asked Xander when he didn't see anyone.

"Be there in a minute!" shouted a British voice from somewhere in the back. Said British voice then let out quite a few curse words right before something leapt from the back straight at Xander.

Xander caught the thing on reflex, and was almost astonished when he saw that it was a very animated wooden leg. It was about the size of a fully grown mans leg, and the fact that he could tell that because of different times he had seen bodies torn apart disturbed him on an as yet unknown level.

"So, where's the rest of Pinocchio?" Xander asked. The leg however didn't seem to think it was funny because it started to repeatedly kick Xander in the chest.

After about the third kick a blue light shot out from the back room hitting the wooden leg. The leg stiffened a bit, then leapt onto the counter where a young man about the same age as Draco grabbed it.

"Sorry," said the red haired man as his ears started to go red in embarrassment. "Bloody thing's been acting up ever since I moved here."

"Then why keep it?" asked Xander. He honestly couldn't think of a reason why a wizard would keep a wooden leg that went around kicking people, something like that had to be bad for business.

"I still need it, and until I can afford a new one, this is all I have," growled the man as he lifted up his robes and attached the leg to the stump where the wizards left leg was supposed to be.

"Sorry, didn't know," said Xander in a quiet voice.

"It's alright, bad things happen," said the man as he looked at Xanders eyepatch, "and I think you know about that already."

"Yeah, I have some experience with badness," said Xander as he nervously touched the piece of cloth that both hid and emphasized his disfiguration to the world.

There was a long moment where both men looked at each other, wondering what had happened to the man standing before them, while reliving their own personal nightmare. When they next locked eyes the two men knew that the other wanted to know, but wouldn't bring up the subject first, surprisingly that eased a lot of the tension that had been building in the room.

"So I take it that you need a wand," said the red haired man.

"That would be one reason for coming into a wandshop," said Xander with a grin.

"Do you have your old wand with you? That's usually the easiest way to find a replacement, but if you don't have with you just tell me it's measurements and we can start from there," said Weasley as he went into the back where Xander assumed where all the wands were kept.

"I'm not here for a replacement then," said Xander.

"A repair job then? Gotta say mate, those can get a bit tricky, and the wand isn't always as reliable as before," said Weasley.

"Listen, I've never had a wand before so there's nothing to repair or compare it to," said Xander.

"Never had a wand before? At your age you must have had at least one by now."

"Well you know us wacky Americans, we like to do everything we can to confuse you Brits," said Xander. "Seriously though, I didn't even know I was a wizard before a couple of weeks ago."

"Next you'll be telling me you're just starting school this term," said Weasley with a snort.

"Yeah, I am, but as a teacher, not a student," said Xander. "And before you ask how I got this job they asked me before the magic became an issue."

"I'm still a bit stuck as to how someone could go their entire life not knowing they had magical talent," said Weasley.

"Yeah well little things like that tend to be ignored on a Hellmouth," grumbled Xander.

"Hellmouth?" yelled Weasley.

"Oh relax, I was conceived in England and just grew up on the Hellmouth," said Xander.

"Okay then, what are you teaching?"

"Muggle Studies," Xander immediately replied.

"Makes sense if you're just discovering you got magic," said Weasley as he rubbed his chin. "Don't suppose you know who the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is do you? Friend of mines been trying to figure it out for weeks now and still doesn't have a clue."

"No idea," said Xander with a shrug. "Considering that this place used to be a Hellmouth I'm sure they have to have gotten someone well known for fighting evil just to make people feel safe."

"Yeah, that's what we figured too, but we still can't find a name," grumbled Weasley.

"Don't worry, when I find out I'll tell you," said Xander.

"Thanks, now about that wand," said Weasley right before a box flew off of a shelf and hit Xander in his head.

"Ow," said Xander as he rubbed the red mark on his head. "You know I'm not usually abused this much unless there are women around."

"In that case remind me to keep my distance when you're off on a date," said Weasley as he opened up the box.

"I'll do that, now would you mind telling me exactly what tried to kill me this time?"

"Ten and one-half inches mahogany, with the bones of a sea serpent as a core, and tipped with the fang of a werewolf," said Weasley as he looked at the contents of the box. "Just finished making this one last week."

"And in one week you trained it to attack costumers, good for you," said Xander, then he froze as he got a look at the wand. It was thicker than most wands he had seen, in fact if Xander hadn't known better he would have said that it was a thin stake.

"This is one of my Hellmouth specials, I've found that they can be quite peculiar. Got to say though, I've never heard of a wand choosing it's owner quite so forcibly though," said Weasley.

"Hellmouth special?" asked Xander with a bit of dread as he focused on what he thought was the greater worry. True the fact that the wand was aware enough to choose him was a disturbing though, but anything that contained the word Hellmouth had to take priority.

"Wands made from bits of the last town. It sat on an active Hellmouth for a hundred years so there are a lot of powerful components for wands."

"Making evil wands for fun and profit, how nice," said Xander as he looked at the wand with a bit more distaste.

"They aren't evil," said Weasley, as his ears turned red. "I don't use any demonic components; all the specials are made from neutral components, just like any other wand."

"So this wand won't turn me into a mindless zombie," said Xander.

"Not unless you are the worst spell caster in the entire bloody world," said the store owner with a snort.

"Yeah well, given my previous experience with magic, I wouldn't discount the possibility," said Xander, as he picked up the wand again.

"Couldn't be any worse than this one bloke I had in my house, poor guy couldn't remember anything if it didn't have something to do with plants," said Weasley with a smile.

"Yeah, well, unless he drove the entire female population into a homicidal rage he's still one up on me," said Xander as he emptied out half of the gold he had brought with him.

"It's not that hard to get a woman mad at you, but an entire town has to be some kind of record," said the store keeper as he put the gold into a register.

"Well I guess that's it then," said Xander as he started to head out the door.

"Hold on a second," said Weasley as he brought out a medieval quill and a large tome. "Need to register your wand before you leave."

"All right," said Xander as reached for the quill. The second his fingers touched the feather the quill jumped over to the tome and wrote Alexander LaVelle Black-Snape, ten and one-half inches mahogany, with the bones of a sea serpent as a core, and tipped with the fang of a werewolf, in the first available blank space.

"Snape!" yelled Weasley in apparent shock.

"It should say Harris," said Xander as he glared at the offending ink.

"Quill's enchanted to use a wizards true name, keeps the customers honest," said Weasley as he continued to stare at the tome with Xander.

"Yeah well all my other documentation lists Harris as my last name," grumbled Xander.

"Any reason that you would be listed under Black-Snape?" asked the younger man in curiosity.

"Snape was my biological father's name, and Black was my biological mother's name. They weren't the ones that raised me though, so I don't see why it would give me their names."

"Any relation to Severus Snape?" asked the store keeper. Xander was amused to see the shop keeper say his father's name in the exact same tone Xander used for the Hellmouth.

"My biological father, I take it you've heard of him?" asked Xander.

"Heard of him?" Weasley asked in shock. "He was the terror of my bloody school career."

"Yeah, unfortunately the taint seems to be hereditary," said Xander.

"Snape was so tainted I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific," said Weasley.

"The taint of being a teacher of course," said Xander in a reproachful tone. "Can you think of a worse fate for a professional slacker?"

Weasley stared at Xander for a while, then burst out laughing and said, "That's twisted."

"Ignore it then, it's just the sound of my childhood priorities going up in flames," said Xander.

"You sound just like my brothers, they never thought much of school either," said a still chuckling Weasley.

"So what did they do?" asked Xander.

"Opened up a joke shop, doing real good too," said Weasley.

"Anything I should look out for?" asked Xander.

"Not that I can think of. They're back in London, so I don't see too many American students getting hold of their products."

"Okay then, see you around Weasley," said Xander as he started to leave.

"Call me Ron," said Ron. "Any teacher that has a sense of humor like yours deserves to use my first name."

"In that case call me Xander," said Xander as he walked out to greet a bright beautiful California day.

Ronald Bilius Weasley smiled as he went into the back room and started writing his letter. Just wait until Harry heard that Snape was able to produce a kid that wasn't a complete git, it'd blow his mind.

A part of Ron still wished that he was with Harry training to be an Auror, a dream that had been destroyed with the loss of his leg. Life in the states wasn't too bad though, he had a successful business, and Hermione was working at the school so he got to see her whenever he wanted.

Still, there was a Snape teaching at the school, which was mildly disturbing even if he was a good guy. Now Malfoy just needed to show up and some of his nightmares would be made real.

"Right, like that's going to happen," said Ron out loud. "Even if they let him out, there's no way Malfoy would come here."


	8. First Day on the Job

Xander did his best not to fidget as he sat in his wizard robes along with all the other teachers. It was the first day of school, and apparently the principal thought it would be a good idea to present the entire faculty to the students during dinner while giving a long and boring speech.

Of course if he was being honest with himself it wasn't being presented like a side of beef that was bugging him, it was the room's decorations. Apparently the designers of the school had decided it was only fiar to pay homage to the people who had kept the Hellmouth from opening for all those years, so the room had large statues of Buffy, Willow, Giles, and himself, as well as a large, moving, painting of everyone that survived the destruction of Sunnydale.

"Are you half as freaked out about this as I am?" asked painting Xander.

"I'm talking to a painting of myself, so I'm going to say more," said the flesh and blood Xander.

"Hey, don't discount the stresses of waking up in a painting, if it wasn't for Giles explaining things I'd probably be screaming at the top of my lungs."

"Giles knows about moving paintings?" asked Xander in shock.

"Yeah, he's in a couple of others back in England, so he's gone through this before."

"Remind me to give Giles a call, we really need to talk about just how much he knew about all these Wizards, and why he didn't ask them for help when we were facing the really big bads," said Xander.

"Will do," said painting Xander.

"Honestly, would you two please be quiet, some of us are trying to listen," said a young female teacher with frizzy hair, and an English accent.

"She's been talking for half an hour," said Xander as he pointed to where the principal was still talking, completely oblivious to the fact that there were very few who were still listening. "I give it another five minutes before the students slip into comas and die."

"I think it's already too late," said an attractive Native American witch as she pointed out a young boy who was drooling, much to the displeasure of those sitting close to him.

"Now it has come to my attention that many of your parents didn't feel it would be safe for you to attend this school. As you will see this is untrue for many reasons, but let me introduce three of them," said the principal as she gestured towards Xander and the witches sitting on either side of him.

"First it is my pleasure to introduce Professor Raven. She served with distinction while the government was hunting down Death Eaters, and is now our Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor," said the principal with her hand pointed towards the Native American witch.

"Second we have Alexander LaVelle Harris the Lightbringer, and patron to house Harris. He has fought demons and other horrors for most of his life, and is now here, teaching Muggle Studies," said the principal.

Lightbringer, house Harris! What the Hell!

"What the hell?" hissed painting Xander, even as painting Faith started to snicker.

"The final individual should need no introduction, but shall receive one anyway. Hermione Jane Granger, one of The Three who tracked down and killed He-Who-Shall-Never-Again-Be-Named, something no other group was able to accomplish in thirty years. She will be teaching Runes this year," said the principal as she motioned towards the witch with frizzy hair.

"You will get to know these three extraordinary individuals as well your other teachers better as the year goes on, but for now let's get on with the business of sorting you into your proper houses. When your name is read you will come up here and place your hands on this stone," said the principal as she gestured to a normal looking white stone. "After a few moments the stone will measure your attributes, and place you in the house you are best suited for by manifesting the animal that has been assigned to each house. If a dragon appears you will be assigned to the house of Summers the God Slayer; an owl for the house of Giles the Wise; a phoenix for the house of Rosenberg the Spell Weaver; and a wolf for the house of Harris the Lightbringer."

Both Xanders groaned as painting Faith burst out laughing. The original Scooby Gang had a place in the history books, and it was as D&D characters.

"Oh cheer up, it could be worse you know," said Raven.

"I've been given a title that is usually reserved for the Devil, please, tell me just how this could get worse," said Xander.

"You could have drool boy in your house," said Raven as she pointed to where the illusionary dragon had frightened the young wizard.

"You know, that really makes me feel better. It shouldn't, but it really, really, does," said Xander.

"You two just don't stop do you?" sighed Hermione.

"Hey, in the last five minutes I learned that I have a title linking me to the devil, and a house that will teach others to follow in my less than stellar footsteps," said Xander.

"Oh that name has nothing to do with the devil," said an exasperated Hermione. "The title Lightbringer refers to the fact that you were always the one trying to lighten the mood with a joke. Personally I think that the title is quite a few steps up from Court Jester."

"Hey, I'll have you know that I've strived long and hard for jester status. It isn't as easy as it may sound, especially since most people like visual effects more than a cutting wit," said Xander. "Besides, how do you know it has nothing to do with the Devil?"

"Simple, I read A History of Sunnydale. It completely chronicled the history of Sunnydale from the moment Richard Wilkins built the town, to the final battle with the First," said Hermione.

"There's a book?" asked Xander. "How long has that been out?"

"Two days, but honestly, shouldn't you know this already?" said Hermione.

"I was there when the dishonorable Mayor Wilkins tried to eat my class, so I know all about him, it's the nicknames that are new to me," said Xander with a shrug. He could guess where the others got their nicknames, but Lightbringer still sounded so very, very wrong for him.

"You know as fascinating as this conversation is, I think it will have to be continued some other time," said Raven as she pointed to where the final wizard was placed in house Giles.

"Huh, that went surprisingly quickly," remarked Xander.

"There aren't that many students this year, a lot of parents must still be worried about bringing their kids to school," said Raven.

"Really? The student population seems about the same as it is in Hogwarts," said Hermione.

"Yes, but the United States has about five times the population of the United Kingdom. We have this school, and another school located somewhere in Florida, splitting the student load in half," explained Raven.

"I suppose that makes sense," said Hermione.

"Well, guess I'll see you ladies tomorrow," said Xander as he started to walk towards the front entrance.

"Wait, don't you have quarters at the school?" asked Hermione.

"Sorry, but if I'm going to work in a school there's not way I'm going to live in one. I'll see you tomorrow," said Xander as he walked out of the school and towards his home.

"Well, he's more interesting than I expected," said Raven as a smirk crept onto her face.

"He just seemed like the average class clown to me," said Hermione.

"That's precisely why I find him so interesting," said Raven. "I've read the unedited reports of Sunnydale, and there are things in there that never made it to the book. Alexander has gone through as much as anyone who fights the dark forces, and he has been able to keep his sense of humor. That is a very rare quality, so he interests me."

* * *

"So how was the dinner?" asked Draco as soon as Xander came in through the door.

"Boring," said Xander. "The principal really likes to hear herself talk, so she tortured the students and teachers for thirty minutes."

"Speaking of teaching, do you intend to keep this up through the school year?" asked Draco.

"Don't really have a choice," said Xander. "I think I figured out what those Death Eaters are doing in here, and right now you're the only one I can trust."

"Right, in that case get your wand ready, we still have a lot to cover."

* * *

Xander smiled as the students for his first class filed in. It was a combined class with a year of Rosenberg's in their blue and orange undershirts, and Summers in their red and gold.

"Welcome to Muggle Studies 101. According to your transcripts this is your first year taking this class so we'll be covering the basics so you will be able to move around in Muggle society without sticking out like sore thumbs. Now I was your age not too long ago so I know some days you have better things to do than go to class, like sleeping. That is why you will be able to make up three assignments by bringing me a box of Twinkies, and a six inch paper of what you did to get them," said Xander.

"Excuse me, but what are Twinkies?" asked a witch from Rosenberg, it figured that her class would get the overachievers; normal students would wait until they had to do the assignment to ask that question.

"Not telling," said Xander. "This is worth three assignments so I'm not going to make it easy. However if you really want to know I suggest that you find some Muggle borns and ask them.

"Now onto the first lesson. One of the largest problems that wizards and witches face when interacting with Muggles are how they dress, so I want you to tell me just why a normal Muggle wouldn't dress like this."

Everyone looked confused for a moment before the same witch from Willows house raised her hand and said, "You have your wand displayed, Muggles don't know about magic so they wouldn't clip wands on their belts."

"Very good Ashley," said Xander as he quickly tapped his wand on his picture role to bring up the witches name. "Five points to Rosenberg."

"Muggles don't walk around with swords strapped on their back," said Jayde from house Summers.

"The smart ones do, but mostly right so five points for house Summers," said Xander with his typical half grin.

"Your shoes don't match," said David from house Summers.

"Correct, five points for house Summers," said Xander.

"Your shirt," said Patricia from house Summers.

"What about my shirt?" asked Xander.

"It's hurting my eyes, there's no way anyone would willingly wear something like that," said Patricia.

"Hey, I like this pattern," said Xander. "There is something wrong with the shirt, but it isn't the pattern. I won't take any points from you for insulting my taste in clothes though because my friends have had similar reactions in the past."

"It's supposed to have short sleeves," said Kevin from house Rosenberg.

"There you go, ten points for Rosenberg, that was a tough one," said Xander. "Now that the fun stuff is out of the way I want everyone to open their text books to the first chapter."

Xander couldn't help the smile that came to his face when several of students from house Summers groaned at the thought of bookwork. He could still remember Buffy making that exact same sound every time she cracked open her French text book.

"Don't worry I promise that I'll do my best to make this as painless as possible, but I've read the book and it has some good points in it so we have to use it," said Xander. "Now chapter one deals with Muggle fashions in the twentieth century. I want each of you to read it, and in two weeks give me a list of clothes you'd wear to go undetected if you go on a trip to LA."


	9. Midterms the Muggle way

Xander smiled at the confused looks he got as the students filed into the room. In the past few months he had earned a reputation as an eccentric teacher, famous for giving some of the most enjoyable assignments, and also dealing out the harshest punishments.

Xander could tell that his reputation definitely preceded him by the nervous looks he was receiving from the seventh years. They all knew something was up, but no one was brave enough to ask the rather imposing teacher what he was up to.

Finally five minutes after the bell had rang one girl from house Giles raised her hand and said, "Excuse me Professor Harris, but this is Defense Against the Dark Arts, not Muggle Studies, would you mind telling us why you're here?"

"Midterms," said Xander with an insane smile as he pressed a blinking red button on the remote he had hidden in his robe.

In an instant the small class room became pure chaos as smoke grenades and flash bangs went off in all the various places that Xander had hidden them. This chaos only increased as unseen enemies started to fire spells into the crowd of students, and the students started to blindly fire back out of fear.

This went on for fifteen minutes, with students falling to the ground and a couple actually beginning to fight back with more than blind panic, when a big booming voice said, "TIME! Holster your wands, but don't move!"

With a quickly whispered spell the owner of the voice sent the smoke back into the canisters it had escaped from, revealing the aftermath of the battle. Xander could see that some of the kids had knocked over the desks to form a crude barrier between them and their attackers, and they were the ones that were still conscious, something that the group of bodies surrounding the door couldn't claim.

"I must admit, on average you did better than I expected," said Professor Raven as she came out from where she had been stunning the students, and started to take note on just who had done what during the fight.

"Tomas, you've just barely been passing my class, so tell me how is it that you lead one of the two groups to establish a defense," said Raven as she noticed that one of her struggling students wasn't in the pile by the door.

"About a month ago Professor Harris heard me say that Muggles must be defenseless because they don't have magic, so he made me write a forty eight inch paper on the modern weapons they use and how they could be used against people with magic," said Tomas with a frown. Xander couldn't blame the kid for being bitter, but he hadn't heard anyone going on about how superior wizards were since.

"Trying to give my students advanced warning Harris?" asked Professor Raven with a half smirk that could either make men weak in the knees, or send them running for the hills depending on her mood.

"Hey you heard the kid, I gave him that assignment two weeks before you asked me to help you set this up," said Xander with a smirk of his own. Raven, like most of the women in his life, took his flirting with a grain of salt. They both knew that there may be something more to this, but neither was willing to explore it at the moment.

"In that case you're off the hook, for now," said Raven. Okay so neither one of them wanted to go for the grand prize just yet, but that wouldn't stop them from playing the game.

"As for the rest of you," said Raven as she turned her attention back to the class. "At the beginning of this class I told you to always be on your guard, and to expect the unexpected. I can see that some of you have taken my words to heart, but there are still many who have not. I expect you all to reflect on what happened today, and how to avoid it in the future during the winter break. Class dismissed."

The second Raven said those words every student rushed out of the room. It was the last class of the day, and many of them still had some packing to do before they left.

"So tell me, do you really think any of the students will give what just happened any thought during the break?" asked Xander as he turned a desk upright with a flick of his wand. He still wasn't as comfortable using his magic as some of his students, but there could be no doubt that Draco's lessons were paying off.

"Perhaps a few in house Rosenberg or Giles, but I doubt any of yours will. House Harris seems to be full of people that don't take their education too seriously, but they always fight the hardest when someone close to them is threatened," said Raven.

"Yeah, it gives me hope for the future," said Xander as he wiped away an imaginary tear.

"Behold the proud father," said Raven with a slight chuckle.

"So any plans for the break?" asked Xander as he started to put the flash bangs, and all of his other goodies into a sack.

"Some of my friends from my time in law enforcement are taking me to Jamaica to celebrate the fact that it's been half a year and I haven't killed any of my students," said Raven. She never mentioned exactly what she had done in her time as a law enforcement officer, or why she wasn't one today, and Xander didn't pry. It was one of the things keeping them from doing more than casual flirting, and he figured that she'd tell him when she was ready, just like he would tell her about Anya when he was ready.

"I heard that the lovebirds are going back to England, something about it not being a real winter without snow and family," said Xander referring to Hermione and Ron. It was all over school that Professor Granger was seeing the one legged wand maker, something that the tabloids were really enjoying because it turned out that she and Ron had known each other for a long time. Their romance was so well known in fact that there was a betting pool among the teachers about when the wedding would be. Xander had put five gold pieces for the first day of summer vacation this year.

"You know that they hate it when people call them that," said Raven.

"Yeah, but annoying the British is one of my favorite pastimes, and they make great targets," said Xander with a full blown smile, something his Slayers would have sworn was just a myth a few months ago.

"So what are your plans for the break, two weeks of babysitting your cousin?" asked Raven.

"Yeah pretty much," said Xander with a shrug. "This is Draco's first Christmas with out his parents so it's not like I'd abandon him. Christmas is usually quiet on the demon front though, so I may invite the gang down and give them a tour of the school."

"Now this I have to see, especially if you can get Faith to come," said Raven with a huge smile on her face.

"Raven I told you, Faith isn't as outgoing as her painting would want you to believe," said Xander.

"Sorry, but that won't work with me. I researched that painting and it was enchanted so that it would be completely true to life, even though no one posed for it."

"Okay let me rephrase that then. Faith has always had a problem with boredom, and real life Faith has more to keep her occupied than painting Faith," said Xander.

"Are you saying that the painting spent half a week flashing students just because she was bored?" asked Raven as she tried to hold back her laughter. It wasn't something that she could condone as a teacher, but it sounded like something she would have done back when she had been a teenager.

"Yeah, and the two weeks of her going nude was due to the modesty spell the principal put on her. She figured that if all of her good parts would be blurred then there was no point in wearing clothes," said Xander as he fondly remembered those two weeks. By the time Faith had been convinced to wear clothes again every male dorm room had spent a week begging their head of house for a portrait of Faith to be put up in their bedrooms.

"Still, I'm begging you to use something to capture the visit, the look on your friend's faces when they discover their titles should be enough to laugh myself to sleep for a week," said Raven with a soft chuckle as she remembered how Xander had reacted.

"I'll see what I can do," said Xander as he made his way to the door. "I guess I'll see you in January then."

"Until then," said Raven with a wave goodbye.

Draco Malfoy was not a happy person at the best of times, and as he watched the storm clouds roll in his attitude could best be described as toxic. If the clouds possessed snow it may have improved his mood, but he knew that it just possessed rain, endless rain.

"Move one muscle, and you're a dead man Malfoy," hissed a voice from behind him.

"Well, I wish I could say that this was unexpected, but honestly I'm wondering what took you so long," said Draco while making no move to turn around.

"Well it's nice to see that your arrogance wasn't exaggerated, but to do what you've done you'd need to be arrogant. Just a few weeks after being released, and you've already violated your parole more times than I can count trying to procure dark artifacts."

"Glad you noticed," said Draco.

"No, you're lucky that I'm the one that noticed and not your muggle lover of a cousin," said the voice.

"Take another look at that list, with the artifacts I have my cousin only sees what I want him to see," said Draco in a confidant voice.

"Very good, you may prove your worth yet," whispered the voice.

"I only had to prove myself to two men, and they're both dead," said Draco.

"Death didn't stop the Dark Lord the last time, and with a little help it shall only be a minor inconvenience," said the voice, and Draco could picture the oily smile that must be on the man's face.

"Bullocks, not even the Ministry knows how to bring people back," sneered Draco.

"Oh they know, they've known for years, they simply fear the consequences," said the voice.

"If that's true then more wizards would have resurrected themselves by now," said Draco.

"Ah, that's the problem isn't it? The conditions must be very precise, and the governments of every country always closely monitor those conditions to make sure wizards aren't resurrected."

"Then how exactly do you plan to bring Him back?" asked Draco.

"You do not need to know the answer to that just yet, after all we aren't yet sure of your loyalties. When you have proved that you are still loyal to the Dark Lord you will gain full knowledge of our activities," said the voice with a sick chuckle.

"And just how am I supposed to prove myself," said Draco. He wanted to turn around and face the man that had cornered him like a rat, but he didn't have a wand to focus his magic through so he was a useless at a newborn muggle.

"Simple, just keep doing what you have already begun and blind your cousin to our actions," said the man as he pressed a familiar weight into Draco's hand. "Long live the Dark Lord."

"Long live the Dark Lord," said Draco with a dark grin as he lifted his wand. He didn't know how they had done it, but this really was his wand, the same one the ministry had claimed that they had destroyed. Things were going to get very interesting in this town very quickly.


	10. Betrayal

A single eye scanned the group of students that filled the cafeteria, or as the British members liked to call it, the dining hall. If someone were to only glance at the crowd they would see a normal gathering of teens, but Xander wasn't just taking a quick glance. Looking a little closer he saw the dark circles that were placed under the eyes of many of the students, and how the smiles seemed a bit forced. Now many would simply pass it off as the stress of school, but Xander had another theory.

"You're doing the eye thing again aren't you?" asked Raven as she finished off her french fries.

"Maybe," replied Xander as he turned an eye to the attractive Native American.

"I still say you've lost your mind. You go through the trouble of getting a magical replacement for your missing eye, but you still insist on wearing that eye patch," scolded Hermione.

"Don't listen to her," said Ron. "I for one am very grateful not to see your eye spinning around your head while I'm trying to eat."

"Thanks," said Xander. He was glad that Ron was becoming more comfortable around him, things had been strained between them for a while now. He probably shouldn't have cheered when Draco had decked Ron. Okay so Ron was on a bit of a revenge kick for all the bullying Draco had done to him during school, but Xander had been proud to know that his cousin had been taking his physical defense lessons as seriously as Xander was taking his magic lessons.

No, there was nothing complicated about the relationships in his life.

"Seriously though, why have the patch? Besides trying to go for the dashing pirate look I mean," asked Raven.

"Seriously?" asked Xander as he scanned the faces of the other people present, and saw them all nod. "The patch will help people underestimate me. I'm never going to be on the same fighting level as a Slayer, and I'm not going to be as good at magic as someone who's been learning it before they hit puberty. Being underestimated is the biggest advantage I have when something is trying to kill me and my friends, so I'm not going to give it up any time soon."

"And I thought you just liked looking through the robes of attractive women without them knowing that you're looking," said Raven with a smirk.

Being the truly evil woman that Xander was beginning to suspect she was Raven had waited until he was drinking his soda before she had made her comment, producing a spectacular spit take. Hermione was even less appreciative of the timing of the comment, considering that she was sitting directly across from Xander.

Xander felt more pity for Ron though. The poor man looked like he was going to have a stroke as his body was torn between laughing, and being paralyzed in fear at the knowledge of just what Hermione would do to him if he laughed.

"So does anyone want to bet on just how evil will try to end the world this spring?" asked Xander in a desperate attempt to save Ron.

"You're not going to start that apocalypse season rubbish again, are you?" asked Hermione.

"I don't see how you can doubt it. It's a fact of life that evil always tries to end the world in the late spring. I think it's some kind of conspiracy to deprive kids of a happy summer vacation."

"For the fifth and final time, the students are simply a bit stressed because of the upcoming final tests."

"Take a closer look at them Herm, that isn't mild 'Oh crap I'm going to fail my class' fear, it's 'I'm about to soil myself because something is going to rip out my organs' fear. I saw it often enough in the spring when this place was still an active Hellmouth to know the difference."

As Hermione looked at the faces of the students something happened that many of her classmates would have thought impossible, she found she had nothing to say.

* * *

"Okay class listen up because I'm about to give you a get out of trouble free card," said Xander as soon as the last student had taken his seat. "The term for today is Live Action Role Playing, or LARP for short. Now there are ten, no make it twenty, points for whoever can explain what this is and how it could get you out of trouble."

Xander repressed a sigh as not one student raised their hand, or even seemed to notice that he had spoken at all. Now he could understand that they had other things on their minds, but that didn't mean he wasn't evil enough to mess with them for ignoring him.

"Oh my God, it's a Snarf demon!" yelled Xander as he pointed to the back of the classroom. Okay so it was a mean and twisted thing to do, but according to Giles this was supposed to be a vacation as much as a job so he was allowed to have fun.

The back of the room was instantly assaulted with a rather impressive variety of curses that would have surely vaporized the door and most of the back wall if Xander hadn't had the foresight to have those structures magically reinforced. Okay so it wasn't as much foresight as knowing his life and the dangers inherited therein, but he was still taking full credit for it.

"So now that we've gotten that out of the way do you think you could pay attention?" asked Xander. "All of you know I'm all for slacking, but you may actually want to know this."

"LARP is when a bunch of muggles dress up and pretend they have magic," said a rather intelligent witch that had been placed in his house.

"Exactly, and following that line of thinking if someone sees you use magic you can pass it off as some special effects you set up earlier. Person won't think its magic, and you get out of trouble for doing magic in front of someone not in the know."

"There's no way muggles can be that stupid," said Chris, who was definitely taking the Ripper path that house Giles seemed to offer. Actually now that he thought about it all the houses seemed to have a few trouble makers that seemed to mirror the darker sides of the person the house was named after.

"You'd be surprised by just how stupid people can be when they want to," said Xander. "At best about half of the people who lived on the Hellmouth had an idea of what was really going on. These people had loved ones and acquaintances go missing or die on a daily basis but they didn't know what was going on because they didn't want to know. Hell, I only figured it out because I was going borderline stalker on the new girl."

"Do you think that wizards could do that?" asked Jackie.

"Oh yeah," said Xander. "Doesn't matter how powerful you are you can repress and deny with the best of them if that's what you really want to do. You probably wouldn't easily repress about anything supernatural, but if an alien showed you his space ship you may pass it off as a demon of some kind."

"That's hardly a comforting thought," said James.

"I know, but it's the truth."

* * *

"Have a nice day?" asked Draco with a bit of a smirk.

"Shove it dragon boy," stated Xander as he slumped down in his chair. "Teaching kids who're afraid that they're going to die makes for a lousy day of work. Haven't I told you this like every day this week?"

"And yet you still haven't come up with any better insults than dragon boy. I'm disappointed in you cousin, your wit was one of the few things that kept me entertained."

"You must have done something while I was gone today," said Xander as he closed his eyes.

"A bit of this, a bit of that," said Draco right before he drew his wand in a fluid motion and sent a bolt of pure magic at the former carpenter. Now under normal circumstances Xander's reflexes, honed by years fighting vampires, would have saved him. The truth though is that being attacked in your own home by someone you trust can never be considered normal circumstances.

So it was that Alexander Harris found himself on the ground, not even able to open his eyes. This would have been a problem a couple of weeks ago, but now he could still see what was going on, even if he had once again lost his depth perception.

"Well done Malfoy," said a Death Eater as he walked into the room. The voice was familiar, but for some reason Xander couldn't see under the mask. It was probably some kind of charm that all Death Eaters had. Damn but he hated smart bad guys.

"I must admit, I had thought it would have been more difficult than this," said the Death Eater as he paced around Xander.

"He's a half blind glorified pastry fetcher that was raised by muggles, a half trained first year could have taken him down," said Draco with a disgusted sneer. "Personally I'll be more than happy when we put this embarrassment out of my misery."

"All in good time," said the Death Eater as he leaned over to whisper in Xander's ear, his rancid breath burning the nostrils of the Scooby Gang member. "I know you're awake, and I just wanted to thank you. If you hadn't been stupid enough to come back we would have never been able to bring back our Dark Lord. So thank you Mr. Harris for your rampant stupidity, and for teaching another generation of wizards to be just as stupid as you."

After that there was a sharp stab of pain, and then the world began to fade around him. In the final moments before darkness claimed him Xander's mind filled with five different ways he could exact his pound of flesh for this betrayal, each of them more bloody than the last. He didn't spend all that time with an ex-vengeance demon without picking a few things up, and he planned to use that knowledge to its fullest as soon as he got out of this.


	11. The More Things Change

The first thing that registered in Xander's mind as it clawed it's way out of oblivion was the cool stone surface that he was lying on. In Xander's experience, a cold stone bed meant one of two things; he was either in the cave and a female demon was about to spawn with him, or he was on a dark alter about to be sacrificed.

Taking care to keep his breathing even as he finished waking up, Xander activated the x-ray option on his new eye to take in his surroundings. He almost let out a sigh of relief when he saw that he was tied to a stone alter surrounded by a dozen Death Eaters. It was just a bunch of jerks trying to end the world, he could deal with this.

Suddenly, Xander heard a moan come from the mop of red hair that he had spotted when he had been checking out the opposition. Of course, because this wasn't Cousin Itt, this mop of red hair was attached to a one legged Englishman.

"Malfoy, you bastard!" screamed Ron as soon as he spotted Xander's cousin.

Okay, so he also happened to be a reasonably upset one legged Englishman.

"Now, what would your fiancé say if she heard you talking like that?" asked Draco. "Where is the Mudblood anyway? We've looked everywhere for her, but it looks like she may have finally wised up and left you."

"I think she's in England, her mom's been sick lately," said Xander, as he opened up his eye. "So what's going on Draco?"

"Nothing much, I'm just planning to sacrifice you and Ron over here in a dark ritual that will open a portal to Hell, and let us retrieve the soul of the Dark Lord. You don't have a problem with that do you?"

"Well, I would have preferred to be tied together with a half naked girl instead of a guy," said Xander as his natural eye looked at Ron, even as his magical eye was spinning in his head, taking in every detail it could. "Other than that I have no problem, after all you're my cousin and I trust you."

"What did I tell you, completely oblivious," said Draco with his trademark smirk in place.

"What about me Professor, do you trust me as well?" asked the apparent leader of the group of Death Eaters.

"You, I'm going to torture and possibly kill, and then I'm going to have a long talk with Giles about operational security," said Xander in a voice that made liquid nitrogen seem like a hot summer's day.

John A. Pseudonym laughed at that, his voice holding a cruel note that had been completely masked until now. "I can see you haven't completely lost that spark I saw down in Africa, good. It's just a shame that you didn't pick up any intelligence and cleanse your aura of the energies you accumulated during your time over the Hellmouth, but then I believe a lack of intelligence was what allowed us to convince you to come and not any of your companions."

"You're going to die, you know that right?" asked Xander.

"Yes, but not today," said Pseudonym, as he pulled out a wicked looking knife and cut a quick, but deep, gash across Ron's chest. He was far less merciful with Xander though, carving an intricate pattern into his flesh, and at places even the bone was marked. The knife was obviously enchanted to not let him die from any wounds it inflicted, because Xander was sure that he felt it cutting across some very vital organs.

Ron amused himself by shouting obscenities at Draco, even as Xander tried not to scream in pain. The wounds had healed quickly, but blood still flowed from the scarred skin, and for some reason that hurt even more than when the cuts had been inflicted.

Xander lost all sense of time as he lay there, bleeding from magical wounds, blood flowing from sealed flesh. His entire life was defined by two things, not giving his tormentor any satisfaction, and using his magical eye to find a glimmer of hope.

Finally after what felt like several eternities Xander found what he was looking for. Releasing his bottom lip from between his teeth the former carpenter allowed himself a rabid grin before he shouted, "Rule Two!"

Before anyone had the chance to question this bizarre statement three bolts of red energy shot through the air. The first hit Pseudonym in the back of the head, while the other two hit the ropes that bound Ron and Xander.

For a moment confusion and shock washed through the collected Death Eaters. Few could understand why Draco Malfoy would attack their leader seconds away from the rituals completion.

Now given half a second more the assembled dark wizards would have gotten over their shock and used their combined powers to reduce the traitor into something less than a smear on the ground. It was very fortunate then that the half dozen teenage girls hiding in the surrounding vegetation were trained to never give their enemy that half second.

Now under normal circumstances half dozen newly called Slayers with the element of surprise would be a fair match against a dozen fully trained dark wizards that had escaped the reach of the law through either cunning or power. However, when you added the short blond that wielded a red scythe that easily cut through every defensive spell the wizards could cast and the red haired witch that casually flung more magic that many magic users could dream of, it would be clear to a blind man that the scales were heavily tipped in favor of the attacking force, just the way Xander liked it.

The second they had been freed neither Xander or Ron had wasted any time in getting off of the alter. They were both still bleeding, but now they didn't have to worry about said blood powering a spell.

Neither warrior wasted much time in joining the fight either. Xander was used to using his fists more than his magic so he took down the Death Eater closest to him with a solid right hook, Ron on the other hand had a more interesting approach.

Removing his prosthetic leg the red haired man used it to deliver a devastating blow to the head of a Death Eater that was stupid enough to dismiss the wandless magician as a threat. Ron may not be the wizard that Harry Potter is, but the one legged man had walked beside his friend for seven years, including the final battle. With only his wooden leg as a weapon the young fighter did the only thing he could do, he continually hit the fallen Death Eater in the skull until he heard the crunch of breaking bone.

This brutal act of violence didn't go unnoticed though. As Ron looked up the world seemed to slow down the second he caught sight of the Death Eater that had a wand pointed at him, the killing curse on the dark wizard's lips.

Ron knew with perfect clarity that this was the moment he was going to die. There was no Harry or Hermione to save him this time, and he had no wand to save himself with.

The moment that Ron resigned himself to his fate a burst of emerald energy shot through the air, and impacted the Death Eater squarely on the chest.

"Do try not to die Weasley, it's in bad taste when people are trying to rescue you," said Draco a smirk firmly in place.

"You're the one that kidnapped me!" growled Ron, his face reddening.

"A minor detail, live in the moment," said Ron's childhood adversary. "A good example of doing so would be to take the wand from either of these two dead wizards, and fight back before you die."

Quietly cursing himself for not thinking of it sooner Ron quickly grabbed the wand from the Death Eater who was now sporting a caved in skull and looked for another target. Said target would preferably be a blond haired git if he tried a triple cross, but Ron would settle for any dark wizard of opportunity.

* * *

The final count was three dead Death Eaters to one critically injured Slayer. Not the worst operation that had been pulled off in the history of the world, but Xander was still wishing that they had done better.

"She going to be okay?" asked Xander as he watched Willow tend to the wounded Slayer.

"Probably," said the witch as the red started to bleed back into her previously white hair. "Slayer healing will take care of a lot, but she may still have a limp."

"I hope not, she has a lot of potential," said Buffy as she joined the duo.

"Hey look at us, together again over a potential mouth of hell. If Giles was here it would be just like high school all over again. Well minus all the awkward puberty stuff, that I for one am very happy about being over," said Xander.

"Trust me, my joy exceeds yours," said an older man as he walked out of the shadows, with a single Slayer acting as his bodyguard.

"Giles, got to say this is making with the surprise. You decided to leave merry old England just to visit me?"

"Well that and to ensure that we could collapse the portal Pseudonym had managed to form one," said the leader of Slayers and Watchers alike.

"He makes three you know," said Xander in a far less joy filled voice.

"I know. If it makes any difference to you I believe that the red haired fellow killed the witch that vouched for Pseudonym."

"It does make a difference, but we still need to have a talk," said Xander. "First though I want to have a talk with John boy, make sure he's ready when the cops come."

"I'll set the privacy spell to full power, just make sure none of the newbie's see, Kisha still has nightmares," said Willow in a resigned tone. Xander never had taken betrayal very well, a trait that was only enhanced during his time in Africa.

As Xander stalked off the other three members were joined by the blond wizard who had secretly been in contact with the group for the past six months.

"My mother got that look on her face a few times, the smart plan was always to run until she got it out of her system," said Draco as he observed his cousin's departure.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," said Buffy as she pinched the bridge of her nose, a move that amused Giles to no end. "He was supposed to be able to relax, that's why everyone else turned down the job when Pseudonym asked. A year, maybe two, without having to worry about the world ending, but not being out of the loop shouldn't be too much to ask."

"I think it did help, to some extent at least," replied Draco. "I don't know what he was like before, but he never laughed when he first got me. Oh sure, he'd force a smile and make a noise that sounded like laughter to make other people more comfortable, but I think it was just to make others happy, not because he really felt like doing it."

"And now?" asked Giles.

"It doesn't happen too often, but it happens. Some times he'd come home and tell a story about how one of his students messed up the assignment in a humorous way, and you could tell that he wasn't faking."

The conversation was cut short by the sound of three wizards apparateing. Turning around the group spotted Professor Raven, and two others, one was a hard faced man, while the other couldn't be a year out of school.

"Hold it right there, you are all under arrest!" shouted the young man as he pulled out his wand the second he saw the dead bodies.

Noticing a distinct lack of similar reactions in the other two, Giles turned to them and said, "Would either of you care to tell this young man exactly why that won't be happening?"

"They're Council Chuck," growled the more experienced man. "They have immunity with just about every wizarding government in existence."

"Quite right," said Giles. "And before any of you get the idea of trying to arrest Mr. Malfoy for this, allow me to point out that he was instrumental in ferreting out these Death Eaters. For the last six months he's been helping the Council acquire artifacts that have helped save the world twice over. When we found out that the Death Eaters thought that he was simply buying the artifacts for personal gain we decided to plan a sting operation, the results you see before you."

"Why weren't we informed about this sting?" asked the older man.

"The simple answer is that you didn't need to know. As you have stated the Council are given immunity by magical governments so that we can prevent the world from ending without arguing over pointless details," said Giles as he held up a hand to forestall and argument. "The more complicated answer is that any Death Eater that hasn't been caught yet is either very cunning or very connected. To be blunt we didn't know exactly who it would be safe to inform."

The older man didn't look happy about that, but couldn't refute the logic. "So where's the leader?"

"At the moment he's being educated on the finer points of trust. By now he should be very willing to answer any questions you may have for him."

The two active cops indicated that they did indeed have some questions, and went in the direction Willow indicated they should go, the same direction Xander had gone a few minutes before. One minute and thirty seconds later Chuck came running back and started to puke his guts out.

"He's using Grath demon torture techniques isn't he?" asked Raven as she stared at the heaving young man.

"I'd say that it's a safe bet considering the mood he was in," said Buffy.

"Kinda glad I stayed here then," said Raven as she turned her gaze towards the group of legendary people. "So are you going to stick around and see the school?"

"You bet," said Willow in an excited voice. "This was the last apocalypse this year, and Xander has been bugging us to come up for months. He wouldn't say much about the school, something about it being a surprise, but he did mention talking paintings."

"So he hasn't told you anything?" asked Raven, as a smile broke out on her tanned face.

"Nope, and now I'm beginning to think that may have been a bad thing," said Buffy, as she saw the face of the other woman.

"It's not bad, it's just a surprise," said Xander, as he rejoined the group.

"Hey, you finished already?" asked Willow.

"Yeah, the second the cop came in, Pseudonym started to tell everything he knew. I'm not into the torture as much as Anya was, so I decided to stop and let the law handle it."

He didn't know it, but his childhood friends let out a collective sigh at that statement. One year ago, Xander wouldn't have stopped, no matter who was there. If someone or something endangered those close to him, he was known to torture the poor creature for days to work off his frustrations. The fact that this was no longer the case indicated that Xander may indeed be walking back from the dark path he had been on before.

* * *

Two weeks later a very happy Xander Harris was collecting the gold from the other members of the betting pool. Ron and Hermione had decided to move the wedding date up to the first day of summer vacation in light of recent events, making Xander a rich man.

This wasn't the story of the day though, and surprisingly neither was the happy couple that had just become man and wife. No, the story today was the conversation between a wizard with extremely blond hair; and his nemesis, another wizard that had a lightning scar that started from his forehead and went down his face.

"What do you want Malfoy," growled the one and only Harry Potter. He knew he should be with his friends, be happy that they could be happy, but all he could think about was how the last woman he had loved was lying in a coma.

"To give you this," said Draco as he held up a vial containing some kind of red liquid. "From what I've been able to learn, I think my father used an old family curse. Part of the cure is blood given by the head of house Malfoy, and with my father gone guess who has that title now?"

"You're saying that this will cure Ginny?" asked Harry in disbelief.

"It's the key to waking her up yes," said Draco as he gave Harry the vial of blood. "You still need to make a potion, just make sure you have someone decent brew it."

"Why?" asked Harry. The single word could have referred to any number things in the shared past of the two men, but somehow Draco knew exactly what the emerald eyed man was talking about.

"If there is one thing I share with my cousin's father it's that I despise being in anyone's debt. As much as I hate to admit it, I owed both you and Granger for getting me out of prison. I repaid my debt to Granger by saving her red haired love there, and decided to do the same for you."

Harry simply nodded; the explanation was in character for his old school rival. Besides if Malfoy was lying there would be no place where the formally dark wizard could hide.

"Now that that's taken care of I think I'll leave with the hopes of never seeing you again. Though I somehow doubt that will happen considering my new job," said Draco as he started to walk off.

"Just what job would that be?"

"I'm going to work for the Council," replied Draco. "There are places that the Malfoy name can get them that they can't get on their own yet, and in exchange they've arranged for me to be able to use my wand again."

"Sounds like the most stupid move in history to me."

"Well then it's a good thing that it doesn't matter what you think, only what my cousin and his friends think," said Draco with a smirk.

"I'll be watching you Malfoy."

"Really," said Draco, his smirk deepening. "Tell me have you always been attracted to men, or did making out with a blood traitor turn you around?"

Harry saw red at the comment, and instantly knew that no matter how much the other man had claimed to change he was the same old Malfoy.

"Careful Potter, you wouldn't want to ruin your good guy reputation by attacking an unarmed member of the Watchers Council in such a public place," said Draco as he saw Harry's hand reaching for his wand.

"Leave. Now," said Harry through clenched teeth.

"Like I said, my pleasure," said Draco, as he once again started to make his way down the path. His cousin may be content to be a teacher for a few more years, but he had other plans. It was now his job to make sure that people respected and feared the Malfoy name, and one of the best ways to do so would be to join a group of people that were already respected and feared.

Oh things would still be different now, there was no avoiding that. The people who used to respect the Malfoy name would have to be taught to fear it, and like wise those who feared the name would have to come to respect it. With the activation of all the potential slayers in the world there was no doubt that the side of good was winning, and if there was one thing every Malfoy was taught from the day they were born it was to always be on the winning side.

With those thoughts in mind Draco Malfoy rejoined his cousin, ready to embrace a new life for himself and a new life for any family he may one day have. The path would be difficult, but he was sure he would be able to make it. After all he was a Malfoy.

The End


End file.
